“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”--Richard Feynman

"In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion."

--- Carl Sagan ( from his keynote address at the CSICOP conference, 1987)

When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.

From the immortal Mark Twain, commenting (in his book, Roughing It) about Washoe (the Carson City area and just north of there, Washoe City)

This was all we saw that day, for it was two o'clock, now, and according to custom the daily "Washoe Zephyr" set in; a soaring dust-drift about the size of the United States set up edgewise came with it, and the capital of Nevada Territory disappeared from view. Still, there were sights to be seen which were not wholly uninteresting to newcomers; for the vast dust-cloud was thickly freckled with things strange to the upper air - things living and dead, that flitted hither and thither, going and coming, appearing and disappearing among the rolling billows of dust - hats, chickens, and parasols sailing in the remote heavens; blankets, tin signs, sage-brush, and shingles a shade lower; door-mats and buffalo-robes lower still; shovels and coal-scuttles on the next grade; glass doors, cats, and little children on the next; disrupted lumber yards, light buggies, and wheelbarrows on the next; and down only thirty or forty feet above ground was a scurrying storm of emigrating roofs and vacant lots.

It was something to see that much. I could have seen more, if I could have kept the dust out of my eyes.

But, seriously, a Washoe wind is by no means a trifling matter. It blows flimsy houses down, lifts shingle roofs occasionally, rolls up tin ones like sheet music, now and then blows a stage-coach over and spills the passengers; and tradition says the reason there are so many bald people there is, that the wind blows the hair off their heads while they are looking skyward after their hats. Carson streets seldom look inactive on summer afternoons, because there are so many citizens skipping around their escaping hats, like chambermaids trying to head off a spider.

The "Washoe Zephyr" is a peculiarly Scriptural wind, in that no man knoweth "whence it cometh." That is to say, where it originates. It comes right over the mountains from the West, but when one crosses the ridge he does not find any of it on the other side! It probably is manufactured on the mountaintop for the occasion, and starts from there. It is a pretty regular wind, in the summer-time. Its office-hours are from two in the afternoon till two the next morning; and anybody venturing abroad during those twelve hours needs to allow for the wind or he will bring up a mile or two to leeward of the point he is aiming at. And yet the first complaint a Washoe visitor to San Francisco makes, is that the sea-winds blow so, there! There is a good deal of human nature in that.

"On the infrequent occasions when I have been called upon in a formal place to play the bongo drums, the introducer never seems to find it necessary to mention that I also do theoretical physics." - R. Feynman

"The parks do not belong to one state or to one section.... The Yosemite, the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon are national properties in which every citizen has a vested interest; they belong as much to the man of Massachusetts, of Michigan, of Florida, as they do to the people of California, of Wyoming, and of Arizona."

"It is the will of the nation as embodied in the act of Congress [in setting aside the Yosemite government reservation in 1864] that this scenery shall never be private property, but that like certain defensive points upon our coast it shall be solely for public purposes."

Quoteeeek
"It is the will of the nation as embodied in the act of Congress [in setting aside the Yosemite government reservation in 1864] that this scenery shall never be private property, but that like certain defensive points upon our coast it shall be solely for public purposes."

"Is there an official (or unofficial) way of getting to the top of El Cap hiking west from the top of the Yosemite Falls trail. One resource casually mentioned "Hike west toward El Cap from the top of the Yosemite Fall trail", but once again, the two trail books that I have do not mention this junction. I asked someone about it in the valley, and he mentioned that there was an "unimproved" gravelly trail that went to El Cap. Anyone know?"

"Is there an official (or unofficial) way of getting to the top of El Cap hiking west from the top of the Yosemite Falls trail. One resource casually mentioned "Hike west toward El Cap from the top of the Yosemite Fall trail", but once again, the two trail books that I have do not mention this junction. I asked someone about it in the valley, and he mentioned that there was an "unimproved" gravelly trail that went to El Cap. Anyone know?"

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.(i.e. Love the Bird)

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.(i.e. Love the Bird)

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.(i.e. Love the Bird)

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.(i.e. The Bird kicks booty)

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.(i.e. Love the Bird)

It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.

It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.(i.e. Love the Bird)

Brilliant. Although I was going to get that Twinkie bill-e-g dropped.He can go to Loch Tablae himself. That's way too far and it'shot there and dusty and the water isn't nice and there are big fishyin the lake with sharp nasty teeths and those lilly pads willjump and bite you and don't mention rattlesnakes o boy don'teven go there there will be h-e-double tootpicks to pay and therocks are dirty and brown instead of a whiteish tone where isthat glacier when I need it. O, did I mention it's really far andthere are these big huge moundy things in between I meanwe're in the mountains but heck I want a flat trail can't theyjust get a grader in here or something maybe some cablesup the Piute it'd be much easier than going way up and thendropping down geez who the heck came up with that crazy ideaand switch what! don't everyone know the straightest linebetween two points aint dat.. Mikey I'm with you big guy.I got your back or at least can you take me out of this packthis guy is killing me!

(ok, the thread is hijacked now... dang I wish I could stickythat "How to get to El Cap" thread to the top)

I don’t want a bunch of chicken hanging around.--- Diane Lane’s character in the movie “Must Love Dogs”

(Very testily telling the butcher at the supermarket why she only wants a single chicken breast and not a whole fryer: ‘Look, I’m divorced. I eat alone. Usually standing over the sink. I don’t want a bunch of chicken hanging around.’The out-of-context quote in the light of the YN&DF... Priceless!)

Europeans only used half as much energy per dollar of GDP, and it was clear that their lifestyle was as good as ours.--- Arthur H. Rosenfeld (California Energy Commission, The Los Angeles Times, 11 January, 2010)

"I'm polymerized tree sap and you're an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns to its original trajectory and adheres to you."—Sheldon Cooper

The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work.---- John von Neumann

Reminds me of the oddball movie I once saw called "They Shoot Horses Don't They?". At the end my date and I looked rather dumbfounded at one another while I realized I just wasted the price of admission. Walked out shaking our heads, which was probably the intent of the movie.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.--- Charles Darwin

One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.---Bertrand Russell

[Note: the above quotes have been lifted fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effectAny perceived application that they may have to steadfast, isolated positions being promulgated in some recent Yos. News & Disc. threads is made at the reader's own risk.]

If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.--- Rev. Henry Ward Beecher[Preface to the book "Bird Brains/The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays"]

I think the biggest difference between England and America is that England has history, and America has geography. In England, you can find whatever you need as long as you’re willing to go back far enough, or go and find out when it happened. In America you can find whatever you need just as long as you’re prepared to drive far enough.

You could write a law and think it's correct, and then you'd publish a bunch of papers, and eventually you'd realize that your parents are the only ones reading them and then you'd know that you were wrong. Now, on the other hand, if your friends are reading your papers, your enemies are reading your papers, and then your enemies are stealing what you've written in your papers, then you'll know that your law is correct. --- Ramamurti Shankar (physicist)